August 2011

Taken as a group, Los Angeles charter schools outperform Los Angeles Unified School District across all grade levels on the Academic Performance Index (API), California’s primary academic accountability metric for schools.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Unified School Board approved changes to the Public School Choice Initiative that could give in-district teams priority in applying for new schools. The charter school community, joined by parents and students from other community organizations, came out in opposition of the proposed

Charter schools that opened under the first round of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Public School Choice (PSC 1.0) initiative last fall are largely outperforming district-run PSC programs, according to STAR testing results. Despite these promising results, on Tuesday, the LAUSD board is set to decide whether to continue to allow charter schools to apply for new schools under this reform initiative.

Fenton Avenue Charter School has plenty to boast about - it is a California Distinguished School, has been visited by dignitaries like former First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton and more students want to go there than for which it has space. That is now, but let’s step back to 1993, when the school’s staff decided to convert the former Los Angeles Unified School District school into an independent charter school, a tremendously bold step at the time and a key factor of their success.

The charter school movement is dependent upon the hard work of visionary founders, leaders, and authorizers, plus dedicated teachers and volunteers and inspired students. The Association is proud to recognize several of them this month.

Despite the success of charter schools, especially here in Los Angeles, or perhaps because of it, misconceptions abound about what charter schools are and what they do. A recent piece in City Watch by Janet Denise Kelly echoed many of…

On August 23, the Walton Family Foundation announced a three-year, $15 million grant to CCSA to expand parental choice in California’s charter public schools, with a specific goal of allowing 100,000 more students to attend quality charter schools over the next three years.

Mary Laihee has been working with CCSA’s special education team to produce a funding guide for charter school operators and educators on the federal and state resources available for providing quality and compliant services to students with special needs.

Megan Kinney has been applying her experience in political research and analyzing political landscapes to map key stakeholders in different communities across California that CCSA can work with on local advocacy efforts.

Summer for Jasmine Perez has been anything but quiet. In addition to helping out with her eight-year old brother, she’s been planning, and anticipating, the trip of her life. No, it’s not to an exotic resort, or a beach, or anywhere warm for that matter. It’s to the glaciers in the North Cascades in Washington state.

Teach for America alumni Hrag Hamalian leads Valor Academy, a charter middle school he founded in the San Fernando Valley to prepare low-income students for college. He recently sat down with CCSA to reflect on the state of public education in Los Angeles, Teach for America, education reform and the charter movement.

The Advisory Commission on Charter Schools (ACCS) is an advisory committee established by the State Board of Education (SBE) to advise the SBE on all aspects of the Board’s duties under the Charter Schools Act. This July, four new members were appointed to the commission, which assists the SBE in ensuring that charter schools realize higher student achievement through sound educational programs and practices and proper financial management.